Analogue to DVD

Need a little guidance my fellow friends. I will try to keep this basic.

I have a Analogue camcorder of which im trying to transfer my 8mm VHS pictures to DVD. The only socket my camcorder has are the standard black and yellow sockets of which I assume one is the picture and the other the sound. I have a ATI graphics card added to my computer which has a S-Video OUT socket. Is it possible to connect this to my computer using these sockets. Ive searched the net to find leads that may fit but had no luck. Would it be better if run my camcorder via my TV Video and perhaps connect another way. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Hi. Take this from someone who has tried to put analogue VHS onto DVD via a PC for years and failed miserably! The quality is crap no matter what software / hardware combination I try. The solution is to buy a Panasonic DMR EZ45V DVD/VHS Recorder. Put your VHS tape in one side and a blank DVD in the other. Select the one-screen settings you desire then press a button. When recording has finished you can record another tape if there is space on the DVD or finalize the disc and play the DVD back on any player through the TV or on your PC. The results are outstanding, especially if you are recording from orginal VHS camcorder tape via a cassette adapter. In fact the quality of playback from the DVD on my HDMI TV is better than the original tape!

Forgot to mention that if don't have an adapter cassette and you want to connect your 8mm VHS camera direct there is a yellow Video Input phono socket on the front of the recorder. If you only have mono sound then connect the black phono plug to the left hand (white) socket and it will record mono to both channels. I have found that S-Video socket does not work in UK as the picture is recorded in black and white but I have not tried it with this machine so that may work.

Thanks for that Bald3agle this info is very useful. Yes since i sent this post ive had a good look round at other options to connect my camcoreder to my computer. I have a ATI X800XT 256MB card added that has a S-Vid socket. With some of the cables that came in the box i managed to actualy get a picture via the S-Vid which connected to my anologue camcorder. But no sound as ther was nothing to connect to on my computer. So ive looked at a converter called DAZZLE but having looked at some reviews it didnt do well. I like the idea you suggest about the Panasonic DMR EZ45V DVD/VHS Recorder. The only thing is i was kind of looking forward to making my own film using pinnacle so i could take out all the best bits and add music ect....I have plenty of space left on my computer with 1024RAM and a Athlon 3000+ so i was looking at the recomandations and mine should more than cope. But given your experience i will asume i have no other option.

Once you have the VHS image on DVD you have a digital source and should be able to import / capture the files to a movie making software program such as Pinnacle, Nero, Windows Movie Maker etc. without loss of quality. Alternatively you could try converting / recoding the .VOB files to mpeg or avi. I am currently having a problem with this though on Nero 7 as the programme is reporting a 2 hour DVD video as being only 1 minute 36 seconds long in the preview window making editing impossible! I am obvioously missing something very simple and I have posted on Afterdawn asking for help on this.

Never thought of that m8..yer import it off a disc...ok going to price up this Panasonic DMR EZ45V DVD/VHS Recorder. Thanks for your help again m8. Hope you have some luck with your problem. I have the Nero Ultra version but cant say i use it that often. But if you need me to compare anything just give us a shout on here m8..will have a look after work tomoz!!! cheers!!!!

With your ATI X800 XT card you should have the dongle input/outputs as well. You can hook up composite video, s-video and RCA stereo audio to the ATI dongle inputs. You should be able to use an adaptor cable from your camcorder if the audio connectors don't match.

The ATI X800 XT is a pretty decent card and you should get very good results with it. You could use ATI's capture software to capture to mpeg2, then do what you want with the video after that. Use Pinnacle or whatever to edit and create your own DVD's.

Stay away from Dazzle products. They are very low quality compared to your ATI card. DVD recorders are great if all you want to do is copy a VHS tape to DVD very quickly without editing. But for the most flexibility, and quality, it's better to have the analog tape captured to your PC.

If you already have an ATI X800 XT it would be a shame to then rely on a DVD recorder to convert analog to DVD, then import those VOB files into an editor to then make another DVD. You'll have far more quality control over the analog to digital conversion with the ATI card than a DVD recorder.

Once you get the connections between your camcorder and ATI card sorted out you should be fine.

Moonrocks is right, it would be a lot easier to capture the same quality direct to hard drive in an mpeg or avi file for editing. It is a while since I tried capturing through a card so before buying a recorder go with moonrocks advice and try the dongle connection. Let me know how you get on. I would have bought the Panasonic anyway as it is a very quick and cheap way of backing up my VHS collection of approx 60 hours of tapes going back 30 years, including super 8mm cine film taken in the 70's and re-recordedto VHS! Good luck! Cheers.

Just thought I'd let you know i solved the VOB file recoding problem with Nero. I've recoded it to Nero Digital and can now edit the whole 2 hour DVD. I can import the recoded DVD file from my hard drive and automatically create chapters which reduces each clip down to a mangeable size. Happy days!

Thanks for the above guys. Well the good news is i made a step forward. Please forgive me but i asume this DONGLE is the set of leads that came with the ATI card. It has a S-Vid socket at one end and leading out from that are 4 wires. 2 of them are yellow Analogue sockets and the other 2 are S-Vid sockets. OK, so using the extention cables from my analogue camcorder (yellow and black), i attached the yellow to the yellow dongle socket (asuming this provides the picture).Then connected the S-Vid socket to my computer ATI card. I feel i should mention at this point that i could not find such software on my RADEON instalation disc that had tool to capture the footage. So i booted up my NERO ULTRA. so im now at the point where i started the original post where the picture was a very poor quality. So next i downloaded a VIVO download from the ATI website. The capture picture is now 99% perfect, except when the picture pans round and then you get alot of hrizontal line across. Also its got a little green line down the right hand side of the capture window. I tried to do some homework before sending this post so i had a look round for this ATI capture software. I seen something called ATI MCC but can i find the download...i would have more luck with a ashtray on a motorbike lol. Im off out to buy a lead to conect the audio socket from my camcorder to my sound card so that should sort the sound out. Im not giving up on this.

Sounds like you are getting to the stage I got to before I gave up with PC capture of analogue VHS. The green line line you see in the capture preview window might disappear when you transfer the finished video to DVD but I could not get rid of it. Also the jagged edge horizontal lines on panning were noticeable on the edited DVD result, but in fairness are not as bad as the preview window image. I tried various capture methods with different cards and and software packages but the results were always poor. The ATI graphics card you have doesn't have or need any capture software so you won't find it on the Radeon Disc. The software used is found in whichever video editing package you use e.g. Pinnacle, Nero etc and it detects and uses the graphics card hardware capture facility if your card supports it, which most good cards do nowadays. In the old days you had to buy a separate capture card to install alongside the graphics card until manufacturers started building the capability onto graphics cards. Good luck and let me know if you crack this, I'd be interested to know the combination of software/hardware. Cheers.

I may have sused the problem. I got my graphics ATI card off ebay so its possible that not all the a accessories came with it. I stumbed accross a picture of a ALL IN WONDER ATI card with a picture of all its accessories. Im thinking that i havnt got a Dongle (sat here laughing). I have provided a link to the picture and put a red circle around the lead that most resembles what i have conected to my camcorder and computer at the mo. I have circled in blue what i think is a VIVO dongle which looks to have the S-Vid socket and all the ports (on that box) that i could fit my analogue cables to. So if this is the case, I would also get sound to i presume??? And would this even work with my card? it does say VIVO on the box!

Yes, the dongles are those leads. The dongle with the purple cable is the input one. You have a blue circle around it. I have an ATI X600Pro card installed on one of my PC's. It's very similar to your 800 card.

Although, as Bald3agle says, you can use other software if you want, the ATI cards do come with capture software. If you run the ATIsetup utility on the ATI CD it should install the MMC software. If you then run the LauncPad the TV icon should start the software you need to capture.

Not sure yet why you're getting green lines, I've never seen that, although I don't do a lot of capturing off a camcorder.

So that solves that problem. I wasnt using a dongle after all. No wonder i dint have kids till i was 30. Probably why i had a green line down the side. Notice you have a ATI X600 Pro. Is that the ALL IN WONDER. I have a ATI RADEON X800XT and looking in the book under installing the CATALYST software, under the multimedia section it says (ALL IN WONDER SERIES ONLY). So unfortunaly i dont have a capture device from the ATI software. But if i can buy this purple dongle, at least it should impove the picture if i use NERO as my capture.

Took a pic of what it said on my ATI custom instalation..... CUSTOM SET UP

Thanks for taking the time to look at my post wguru since its been a while i posted it. I tried alot of things but i think it just comes down to the simple fact i just need the right connection or dongle as my ATI RADEON X800XT is not a all in wonder. I had a look at the link you provided and this seems like a afordable solution however, i have a couple of questions...

I noticed the interface is a PCI connection but my board is a AGP so is there one that suports a AGP slot?

Does this mean i have to take my ATI card out as i know i have 2 AGP slots and i bought the ATI card for my gaming?

Nice one moonrock. Afew posts above points me that way also. I will get back to you all when i get hold of one given that many of you have been so kind as to give me great advice. May even post a video of me jumping with joy when i finaly sus this out lol

As an old music teacher once said in a school asembly "NEVER GIVE UP"!

P.S If your reading this post KWorld or Hauppauge you may want to throw a card my way so i can test it for you! Results to follow!